TUESDAY, Dec. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Children who were allergic to eggs were able to overcome the allergy by gradually increasing the amount of egg they ate, U.S. researchers say.

"Participants who took a daily dose of egg product over the two-year study period were able to build up their bodies' resistance to the point where most of them could eat two scrambled eggs without a reaction," researcher Dr. A. Wesley Burks, chief of the division of allergy and immunology at Duke University Medical Center, said in a prepared statement.

The small pilot study involved seven youngsters, aged 1 to 7. The children consumed small daily doses of powdered egg mixed with food. At the start of the study, the doses were the equivalent of less than one-thousandth of an egg. That was gradually increased to the equivalent of one-tenth of an egg, which was maintained as a "maintenance dose" for the remainder of the study.

The study, published online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, is expected to be in the January print edition of the journal.

Egg allergy is one of the most common food allergies among children in the United States. While most children outgrow the allergy by age 5, some have the allergy for the rest of their lives.

This study was the first in a series of food allergy desensitization studies being conducted by researchers at Duke and the University of Arkansas. One of the studies is examining whether the desensitization method is effective in children with peanut allergies.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about food allergies.